Family of Indigenous woman found on rail tracks critical of police investigation
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 15/01/2020 (1553 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
The family of a woman found naked and severely injured along a rail line in south Point Douglas is demanding answers — and a renewed investigation from Winnipeg police.
Jaeda Vanderwal, 22, was found Jan. 5 shortly after 9 p.m. on the tracks east of Higgins Avenue. The young woman was experiencing hypothermia, and had catastrophic injuries after being struck by two trains, police say. A train operator called emergency services, who took Vanderwal to hospital where she died.
“I just want to know why and how she was there — how she ended up there. That’s what I want,” Vanderwal’s mother, Natalie Beaulieu, said Thursday during a news conference at the Winnipeg office of the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs.
Vanderwal’s family criticized the Winnipeg Police Service’s handling of the case.
Elyssa McIvor, Vandweral’s aunt, said relatives have been given the runaround by both WPS and the province’s medical examiner in trying to get details about what happened that Sunday in January.
McIvor said police did not ask the family about Vandweral’s whereabouts that day, provided only bits and pieces of information in the days following her death, and did not allow relatives to see the body.
AMC Grand Chief Arlen Dumas said the manner in which Vanderwal’s family was notified of the death was also disrespectful.
“Jaeda deserved better treatment from the Winnipeg police. Instead, from the beginning, she was like many of our men and women who are thought of as just another Indigenous person who had substance abuse problems that led to their untimely deaths,” McIvor said.
Vanderwal was remembered by family as a loving mother who was always happy, provided for her child unconditionally, and “made you laugh, even if you were crying.”
Winnipeg police spokesman Const. Jay Murray said an investigation had determined Vanderwal’s death was not criminal.
Investigators believe Vanderwal entered the rail line by climbing over a locked gate along Higgins Avenue, Murray said. She had left personal items, including a tablet and a jacket, outside of the fence. She was alone and walked along the tracks and around a number of vacant buildings. She returned to the tracks, where she was hit by a train and seriously injured.
Police believe she removed her clothing at that time and crawled along the tracks before being hit by a second train.
The train operator stopped the engine, provided first aid, and called 911, Murray said. Video footage from trains and buildings in the area have helped police determine what happened, he said, and based on tracks left in snow they believe she was walking.
Paradoxical undressing, a phenomena associated with lethal hypothermia, might explain why Vanderwal removed her clothes, he said.
The cause of death is blunt-force injury, Murray said, and hypothermia is a contributing factor. There is no evidence of sexual trauma, he noted, and results of a toxicology report are also outstanding.
A clear timeline of the events prior to her being on the tracks and exactly when she accessed the rail line, however, has not been established by police, he said Thursday.
“We’ve followed all the evidence that’s available to us,” Murray said, adding new information and evidence is welcome. “We can always reopen investigations based on new information that comes forward after.”
The last time Vanderwal was seen by family was earlier that day. She’d video chatted with her mother in the morning, and was in touch again at 3 p.m.
McIvor said it’s extremely disturbing to her police can’t account for the six hours no one heard from Vanderwal.
“I am just so angry on how everything came about,” Beaulieu said. “My daughter was never like this. She always let everybody know where she was.”
Winnipeg police Chief Danny Smyth has agreed to meet with Vanderwal’s family and AMC representatives Friday, Murray said.
“There’s a series of questions that we will be bringing forward with the chief and from the assembly as to how this matter was dealt with,” Dumas said. “And we require that there be further investigation and further information sought.”
danielle.dasilva@freepress.mb.ca
Danielle Da Silva
Reporter
Danielle Da Silva was a general assignment reporter for the Free Press.
History
Updated on Thursday, January 16, 2020 6:51 PM CST: Adds photo